2019 was the most intense year of personal change I’ve experienced in over a decade. I got engaged, bought a house with my partner, and got married at the Grand Canyon. At the same time, I struggled with chronic health issues. Lastly, a complex family situation came to light, further complicating significant relationships. All of that to say, 2019 was an amazing, difficult, and painful year.
So, at the beginning of 2020, I was hoping to settle in for a time of introspection and deep reflection. Instead, a series of global crises dominated my attention. Potential war with Iran, fires raging across parts of Australia, Brexit’s final reckoning, the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Venezuela... only the smallest tip of a massive iceberg of ecological and socio-political upheaval. Even though I felt a strong need to focus on my physical and emotional needs, I found that I could not separate my personal sense of well-being from the suffering of so many across the world. I felt helpless and afraid.
At times like this there are spiritual and emotional strategies to keep oneself grounded and return to a cosmic center. Yet every time I found stable footing, another wave collapsed on top of me. Finally, one evening, I stumbled over an image of a koala bear wounded in one of the Australia fires. And I broke down. I cried for a billion helpless animals - koalas and kangaroos, and also the unseen and less cuddly creatures burning to death. I cried for the people dead, missing and displaced - and for the volunteers desperately fighting to turn the tide. I cried for the devastated land. And I knew that my tears of pain and frustration were utterly meaningless if I didn’t stop feeling helpless and start taking a stand.
Later in the week my husband and I did research and ultimately determined that the most meaningful act we could make, from the western United States, was a financial one. We made donations to several wildlife organizations in Australia as part of an online auction. It was, for us, a contribution that required minor, first-world sacrifice. Yet we also didn’t delude ourselves into thinking that sum was more than a tiny drop of water in response to a situation that will take countless buckets to resolve. What was important to us was that we did something. We took action, no matter how small. We pledged to keep informed about ongoing needs in Australia, and also made a commitment to get more involved in our local community.
Solidifying this pledge, on January 25, we attended Civic Saturday, a community gathering started by Citizen University and now hosted in over thirty cities across the United States. Now, over a month later, we are maintaining an open dialogue about ways to become part of positive change in our local and global communities and have affirmed our commitment to make 2020 a Year of Inspired Action.
Inspired Action, a phrase coined by my witchy colleague and mentor Kelly-Ann Maddox, is a spiritual practice that attempts to align core values with one’s daily way of living and being across all aspects of one’s life as a citizen of the world.
Kelly-Ann shares:
“...one of the big things that stresses me out sometimes is that there’s so much sh-t going on that I cannot singlehandedly change...But I know that action releases tension, so if something’s bothering me, whether it’s the situation with the fire in Australia, the situation with homelessness in my community, the situation with suicide, whatever it is...I know that taking some sort of action to help on any level will release the tension, and it is the right thing to do.
“...Take some sort of inspired action, however seemingly small, to align yourself with the things you want to see more of in the world. When you do that, you are living authentically, you are living in your truth….”
As I consider my own continually evolving spiritual practice, I can see that I have utilized some principles of Inspired Action for many years now. For nearly a decade I have actively maintained a shamanic altar (though a college friend reminded me that I had a makeshift altar even back then.) Working within sacred space at my altar nearly always leads me to some outer act, whether to call a loved one or set some internal or external wrong right. As Peruvian shaman don Oscar Miro-Quesada teaches, “we need to grow corn and potatoes” of our inner experiences.
Within the framework of Inspired Action, I am taking these small steps further, stretching myself to more and more sit with uncomfortable situations beyond my small life bubble. It is no small task for highly sensitive, empathic people to not only behold pain, but to actively face it. Yet this “beholding” practice asks me to not turn away, or, if I need to, to take some deep breaths and, as soon as I can, return to the outer face of the challenge. An example: periodically I check in to learn more about ongoing conditions in Australia. I look for trusted, time-sensitive resources and watch as people share their experiences. Recently my Native elder shared about the Aboriginal and Maori response to the ecological crisis and I am holding sacred space in solidarity. It’s not enough to just wire money - I also want to continue giving this situation my attention, with the intention that, if and when the time comes, I will be in a better-informed place to do more.
Interestingly, this practice has allowed me to be more present in dealing with certain challenging situations within my small life bubble. There is a certain irony that, though I began this year longing for solitude, the practice of Inspired Action is teaching me that I can be deeply present within even as I actively tune in to the world around me.
It’s worth noting that Inspired Action is not subtle activism, though subtle activism can lead to it. As David Spangler writes in the Subtle Activism Card Deck Manual, “Subtle activism is not meant to be, nor can it be, a substitute for physical action where and when such action is possible; rather, it is a complement to what we can do physically. A way of deepening and empowering our physical activism.”
So far it seems that the most important components of Inspired Action are a grounded sense of self, a willingness to be present to and within world conflicts, and a spiritual or psychological practice that offers specific tools, such as shadow work, for cultivating inner awareness and consciously working with discomfort.
With all of the ecological, political, social and humanitarian crises our world is currently facing, I think many of us can agree that the world is in need of serious change. Inspired Action is the act of rising to the moment, saying,
The world is large, complex and I am only one person. I cannot put out the raging fires across the globe. I cannot feed every hungry and displaced person. I cannot meet every need. There is so much that I cannot do. But what the universe entrusts me to see, whatever step I can see to take, no matter how small, this I must do.
If we all embodied the wisdom of Inspired Action, our small steps might save us.